Dedicated Mail Carriers Trek Through Predicted Record Amount of Snow

"You know, people telling me to keep the bills, because if I keep them you are going to have to pay the late fees anyway,” Tran said. And he knows the stories of run-ins with neighborhood pets.

"Luckily I haven't been bit yet,” Tran said.

But this Ankeny mail carrier says there is no better job for him.

“It forces me to be active. Otherwise, I would be at home just Netflix and chilling, whatever they call it now,” Tran said.

Tran does admit, this much snow in a short period of time is making his job interesting.

"I guess the biggest struggles are just the amount of time you aren't expecting it to take up when you are going through the snow,” Tran said.

The young letter carrier chooses to trek right through the thick of it.

"It is slightly faster, even in deep snow,” Tran said. “And the other thing to it too, is the sidewalks. A lot of times, not all of them are guaranteed to be salted." He looks to avoid any major spill that would mess up his perfected mail delivery system.

"You have to be a lot more careful about slipping and falling because, especially on heavy days. If you have more mail volume, there's more weight and [you’re] more easily thrown off center,” Tran said.

Delivering to over 500 homes a day, Tran compares his snowy walks to an extra-long workout on the stairmaster. And with more snow on the way, it is only set to get worse. But he says it's all in the days work, making sure Iowans get their important mail on time; and Iowans are pretty thankful in return.

"That house right there,” Tran explained, “he baked a potato bread once, and one day during Christmas, he even gave me a sweater, and it was a pretty nice sweater.”